Boost for state as it gets 1,540 sub-inspectors

In a major relief to the Maharashtra police, especially the Mumbai police, a fresh batch of around 1,540 police sub-inspectors (PSI) joined police stations across the state in the first week of this month after completing their one-year police training at the police academy, informed an official from the DG office. The Asian Age, in its August 4, 2013 edition had highlighted the fact that the whole of Maharashtra had only 8,969 posts for PSIs, out of which 2,564 posts were lying vacant. The young PSIs are considered to be the backbone of a force. The Mumbai police got a shot in the arm as a major chunk i.e. around 750 PSIs have been posted here. The city police has a sanctioned strength of 3,145 PSIs, out of which 1,467 posts were lying vacant till now. However, statistics reveal that there is a crunch of over 50 per cent PSIs in the Mumbai police, Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS), Konkan range, Nashik range, Railway police (in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur), training institutes and side branches, including the special protection branch and CID. “The ATS has only 26 PSIs and needs at least 64 more officers to meet the sanctioned strength. It will take around five years for the ATS to get some of these PSIs and they will have to prove their mettle before being chosen,” an ATS official said. The Konkan range has 200 PSIs, but needs 213 more to meet the sanctioned strength. The picture is grimmer in the Nashik range, which has only 182 PSIs and requires 222 more officers. Further, the Railway police in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur only have 100 PSIs and require 117 more to fill the sanctioned posts. Out of the rest 790 police sub-inspectors, around 80 have now been posted in the Konkan range, around 70 in the Kolhapur range, 90 in the Nashik range, around 10 in Aurangabad, around 65 in Nanded, around 75 in Amravati, around 50 in Nagpur and around 70 in Gadchiroli amongst others. When contacted, additional DGP, establishment, S.C. Mathur confirmed the development.